windows 9

IFA 2014 kicked off in Berlin this morning, and already we’re seeing an interesting trend emerge: Those cheap-and-cheerful small-screen Windows 8 tablets that Microsoft promised back in April are finally arriving. Both Toshiba and Acer have announced their offerings (priced at $120 and $150 respectively), and the usual OEM suspects (Dell, HP, etc.) should unveil their offerings over the next couple of days. These tablets will all be fairly low-spec devices with either a 7- or 8-inch screen, and most of them will be powered by an Intel Atom (Bay Trail) SoC. This means you can now get a full Windows 8.1 device for just $120 — a proposition so juicy that Microsoft hopes it can entice customers away from cheap Android tablets and into the Windows camp.

In a rather odd turn of events, Microsoft China has posted a Windows 9 teaser on Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. The teaser, which featured a rather awful fan-made Windows 9 wallpaper, was quickly removed. The post by Microsoft China clearly stated that Windows 9 is ‘coming soon,’ all but confirming that we’ll get our first look at Windows 9 at a special event later this month (probably September 30).

According to new Windows 9 leaks and rumors, it seems we could be in for some dramatic changes by the time the first public preview of Windows 9 rolls around on September 30. The most recent leaked builds of Windows 9 (codename Threshold) indicate that Microsoft will finally fix the awful upgrade process that has plagued Windows for almost two decades, replacing it with a one-click upgrade system. Perhaps more excitingly, another source says that Windows 9 will formally split the Metro and Desktop interfaces: Tablets will be restricted to Metro, while laptops and desktops will be locked to the standard Desktop interface.

Microsoft is planning to release a preview build of Windows 9 at a special press event on September 30, according to sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans. It’s still unclear exactly how many of Windows 9’s hotly anticipated features will actually make it into the September 30 release — but hopefully we’ll at least see the resurrected Start menu and Metro apps running on the Desktop. We wouldn’t be surprised if you have to wait a little longer for the consumer preview of Windows 9 before you get to play with your new Cortana digital assistant, however.

Windows 8 has been a bit of a train wreck for Microsoft as users have expressed their displeasure in the tablet-oriented direction. Windows 9 is supposed to pull it back, and the first technical preview may be just a month away.

According to the latest leaks out of Microsoft, the next major version of Windows — Windows 9, Windows Threshold — will kill off the Charms bar. And, if that wasn’t enough to win back the droves of Desktop users who were scared off by the disgusting blight of Windows 8 Metroficiation, Windows 9 will also have virtual desktops! Yes, it would seem Microsoft is serious about making Windows a first-class operating system for mouse-and-keyboard users yet again.

With surprisingly little ceremony at all, Microsoft has announced that the next major update for Windows 8.1 is coming next week on August 12 — except calling it a ‘major update’ is a wee bit of an overstatement. In fact, despite rumors that we’d be seeing a significant ‘Update 2’ in August, Microsoft says that’s definitely not the case. In short, if you were hoping for something exciting from the second Windows 8.1 update, you will be sorely disappointed — unless you’ve been avidly awaiting some touchpad tweaks, anyway.

Microsoft’s Satya Nadella has confirmed that the next version of Windows, probably Windows 9, will unify the Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox operating systems into ‘one single converged operating system.’ Microsoft had previously made some moves towards unification with Universal Windows Apps that run across all three platforms, but this new version of Windows will go a lot further: ‘This means [we’ll have] one operating system that covers all screen sizes.’

Over the last couple of days, screenshots that purport to be from an early build of Windows 9 (Threshold) have leaked online. Most notably, one of these screenshots includes the new, resurrected Start menu that Microsoft first showed off at its Build conference in April. Another screenshot shows Metro apps running in a window on the Desktop.

According to some anonymous sources (with good track records), the Start menu won’t be returning to Windows 8 later this year as part of Update 2. Instead, it may get pushed back until the next major Windows release, dubbed Threshold, in 2015. It isn’t clear why Microsoft is holding back the Start menu, but my guess is that it would make for a nice (if ironic) “killer” feature to get people to upgrade to Threshold/Windows 9. It also isn’t clear if Metro-apps-on-the-Desktop will be a Threshold feature, or if they’ll make it into Update 2.